2017 Conference

Word and Image: The Second Modernist Network Cymru Conference

National Library of Wales/Aberystwyth School of Art, 12-13 September 2017

Emma West

Chair, Modernist Network Cymru (MONC)

On 12-13 September 2017, over 40 academics, curators, artists and enthusiasts gathered at the National Library of Wales to explore the connections between word and image in a range of modernist texts from Wales and beyond. The conference, the second organised by Modernist Network Cymru (MONC), had two aims: firstly, to bring together those engaging with (or making) literature and the visual arts; secondly, to bring those working on Welsh modernism into dialogue with works from other nations. The theme of Word and Image seemed a perfect way to bring together these different strands, not least because word-image crossovers seem especially pertinent to the art and literature of Wales. We could think of figures such as David Jones, Brenda Chamberlain and Margiad Evans who worked across art and literature, whether in poetry and painting or short stories and illustration, or texts such as Chamberlain and Alun Lewis’s Caseg Broadsheets, which juxtaposed modern poetry with experimental woodcuts. More recently, the photographer Aled Rhys Hughes and the Welsh National Opera have both produced multimedia responses to Jones’s prose poem In Parenthesis.

It was thus with great anticipation that the committee awaited the arrival of delegates on a stormy Tuesday morning in the National Library of Wales. Within a few minutes, the conference nerves subsided: the delegates were so enthusiastic and friendly that the area outside the Drwm was soon filled with excited chatter.

Please see below for information on exhibitions and activities taking place in Aberystwyth on 12-13 September. The Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, and the School of Art, have both arranged to exhibit materials to accompany the conference.

In 2016, the successful campaign to stop A-level Art History being dropped demonstrated the enthusiasm for art history among students, artists and educators across the UK. Yet the future of art history in all its forms – whether in schools, universities, libraries, galleries, arts centres or community groups – remains uncertain.

If, as the artist Jeremy Deller has argued, ‘Art history is the study of power, politics, identity and humanity’, the study and appreciation of art is more vital than ever in the tumultuous 21st century. In Wales, art history is inextricably linked with the political: the lack of critical attention has led to Welsh artists being marginalised or excluded from the canon altogether. How can art history in Wales work to recover movements, groups, individuals or works that have been lost? How can it consider, contextualise and celebrate Wales’s rich and diverse art history, bringing it to new audiences? What are the shared experiences with other humanities subjects (such as literary studies), and what can these disciplines learn from each other?

Join us for a free roundtable discussion with leading artists, curators and historians to discuss the future of Welsh art history/art history in Wales.

We’re delighted to announce that registration is now open for Word and Image: The Second Modernist Network Cymru (MONC) conference, to be held at the National Library of Wales/Aberystwyth School of Art on 12-13 September 2017.

Those interested can register via our Eventbrite page. So that we can confirm numbers with catering, registration will close on Friday 1 September 2017.

If you wish to attend after registration has closed, please get in touch with us at modernistnetworkcymru[at]gmail.com and we will do our best to accommodate you.